As specialist vehicle manufacturers go, Australia’s Holden Special Vehicles are spring chickens, with only fifteen odd years of existence to their credit.

Yet there’s no denying that HSV have packed a lot into those fifteen years, with some unique, very special and even rare cars being produced.

So try this for a trick question; What would be the rarest cars ever produced by HSV ?

The answer is probably the two black VN SS Group A’s that were built in 1991. Ah yes, you all say, but the VN SS Group A only came in Durif Red, not black.

Back in ‘91, Mt Panorama’s annual gathering was known as the Tooheys 1000 and HSV stepped in with a boldly imaginative promotional venture – let’s not give a car away, let’s give two cars away!

This pair of even more special vehicles had appropriate number plates - 1000V8 and 2000V8 - but with the passage of time, both unique HSVs were forgotten about as VN turned to VP, VR etc and cars such as the GTS and GTS-R were created.

Ty Russell in Perth knew all about the two black VNs however, so when he saw the 2000V8 car for sale in one of those trader type mags a few years ago, his reaction was immediate.

"I rang the bloke up in Victoria, but not because I wanted his car," explained Ty.

"As far as I’m concerned the great race is the 1000, not 2000, so I asked about the 1000V8 car and this bloke told me that his son-in-law owned it!"

Now Shane’s been hotting up Commodores for some time and the first thing he did to Ty’s HSV special was to add the Lovells-and-Koni combination to the undercarriage.

Whiteline adjustable sway bars and a K-Mac castor / camber kit were also added in those early stages.

Engine wise, the two black VN SS Group A giveways carried ‘stock’ Group A motors, but Shane soon started working on this area.

The heads were ported and polished, a C.O.M.E cam added plus extractors and a VS GTS cold air intake.

In this trim, Ty and Shane were happy enough for about 18 months, but eventually the quest for more power became too much to resist.

Likewise, the drivetrain componentry is fairly serious, although there have been a few changes made right out the back.

"It came from the factory with 3.45 ratio diff’ gears, but the 4.11s we put in there quickly blew up," conceded Shane.

"The 3.9s in there now are better suited to the engine and have so far handled the 352 horsepower this car is producing at the back wheels."

In modern language, that’s 260kW at the back end and a look at the dyno chart shows just how progressive and smooth the power delivery is. As Shane put it, "That’s MoTeC for you !"

Ty actually removed the red pinstriping that ran down the side of his unique car because he reckoned it looked terrible, and some of the original Tooheys 1000 promotional stickers have been removed - with a few HSV type decals added in their place.

Undoubtedly, the polishing of those 17" Group A alloy rims has added further to the visual appeal of this road-warrior's dream.

"Ty and I sort of made a bit of a deal," explained Shane.

"At his wedding recently I said that I’d like to use the car for the 2000 HDT / HSV Owners Club Championship.

"The deal was that if he paid for the parts, I’d forget about the labour, but he’d have to let me use the car for the Championship."

An interesting scenario - perhaps Shane is secretly after the club’s Barbagallo Raceway lap record of 65.23 seconds, held by Darryl Abbott in a radically modified VR GTS.